Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4246
An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Writing Report Text
Yesica J P Situmorang1, Sahlan Tampubolon2, Lastiur E. N Berutu3, Agustina Sirait4
1,2,3,4 Faculty of English Education Nommensen HKBP University, Medan, Indonesia Email: [email protected]1, [email protected]2
[email protected]3, [email protected]4
Abstrak
Menulis teks laporan dipandang sulit oleh sebagian besar siswa. Maka, penelitian ini mendeskripsikan kesulitan yang dialami mahasiswa dalam menulis teks laporan dan untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor penyebabnya pada semester tiga pendidikan bahasa Inggris di FKIP Universitas HKBP Nommensen Medan. Desain penelitian untuk penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat 6 siswa yang mengalami kesulitan dalam struktur generik, 10 siswa yang mengalami kesulitan dalam fitur leksikogramatika, 10 siswa yang masih belum dapat memilih diksi yang tepat dan 8 siswa yang tidak memperhatikan penggunaan tanda baca terutama titik dan koma saat menulis.
teks laporan. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa mereka memiliki beberapa kesulitan dalam struktur generik, leksikogramatika, diksi dan tanda baca. Salah satu faktor yang menyebabkannya adalah kurangnya pemahaman tentang struktur generik dan fitur leksikogramatika.
Kata kunci : Kesulitan siswa, Report Text
Abstract
Writing report text was seen to be difficult by the majority of students . So, this research described the difficulties that students have in writing report text and to know the factors that cause it at the third semester at English language education on FKIP University of HKBP Nommensen Medan. The research design for this study was descriptive qualitative research.
The result showed that there 6 students have difficulties in generic structure, 10 student that have difficulties in lexicogrammatical features, 10 students who still not able to choose the right diction and 8 students don’t pay attention in using punctuation especially periods and commas when writing report text. It can be concluded that they have some difficulties in generic structure, lexicogrammatical, diction and punctuation. One of the factor that caused it is they have lack of understanding about generic structure and lexicogrammatical features.
Keywords : Students’ difficulties, Report Text
INTRODUCTION
English is a global language with vital applications in economics, commerce, science, and other fields. According to Goodwyn & Branson (2005, p. 1), English is very essential and is often considered as the most important of all school courses, owing to the fact that writing, reading, speaking, and listening are required in every school subject and in life to varying degrees. As a result, mastering English is extremely crucial in Indonesia. Then writing is a talent that entails understanding all components of the target language in order to learn how to communicate thoughts in written form. Writing is the act of putting anything down on paper. According to Nation (2009, p. 113), Writing is an action that may be productively prepared for work in other abilities such as listening, speaking, and reading. Writing is often used to measure a student's progress in learning English. Writing is a productive skill that helps students develop their ability to express what they feel and think.
Recount text, narrative text, explanation text, report text, descriptive text, parody, analytical exposition, news item, anecdote, process, hortatory description, debate, and
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4247 reviews are among the 13 categories of text (Gerot & Wignell, 1994, pp. 192–223). However, the writer will concentrate on report text in this study. Report text is a sort of text that conveys information about something as it is, based on methodical observation and analysis. A report may be characterized as a description of how things are in our surroundings, containing references to a variety of natural, man-made, and social occurrences (Gerot & Wignell, 1994, p. 196).
Writing report text is seen to be difficult by the majority of students. If their language skills are poor, the challenge becomes more apparent. The researcher had the experience when the researcher wrote a report text, the researcher had difficulty because it was difficult to distinguish between the report text and the descriptive text. On the other hand, based on the results of the preliminary research conducted by the researcher, a third semester student at HKBP Nommensen Medan majoring in English education, also had difficulties in writing report texts such as not focusing on the generic structure and not using the simple present tense well.
From all the explanation above, the researcher would like to carry out the research to find the difficulties that students have in writing report text texts that focus on generic structure and significant lexicogrammatical features and finding the factor that cause it at the third semester majoring in English Education in HKBP Nommensen University Medan.
Theoritical Framework Writing
We often hear the word writing in our daily life. Writing is an activity that someone does to produce text. People who are copying lessons, writing songs, writing in a diary, even people who are scribbling on walls can be said to be doing writing activities. Writing is one of the skills that students need to learn. Writing is the process of transferring ideas into an understandable written forsm. According to Sapkota (2012:70) quoted in Harris et al. (2014, p. 55), writing is an activity of putting graphic symbols that serve to present a language to convey a meaning so that readers can catch the information the author is trying to convey.
Maharani (2007, p. 12) states that writing is the expression of ideas, ideas, thoughts, or feelings through written language. In other words, writing is an activity that a person does to express his thoughts through writing.
Through writing, English learners can convey messages to their readers at any place and time. Writing skills are difficult and complex language skills because they require broad insight and broad thinking. It can be said that writing involves several components including content, organization, vocabulary, grammatical structure and mechanics such as punctuation and capitalization. As a result, students are unable to write because their writing does not master these components. When writing, students need to express ideas and arrange ideas in a good content, organization, vocabulary, grammar and mechanics. Writing, according to Nunan (2003, p. 88), is mental effort that involves locating ideas, considering how to communicate them, and organizing them into coherent statements and paragraphs.
Report Text
Definition of Report Text
Report genre usually tells the natural or non-natural phenomena or even social phenomena. This genre writing is a kind of descriptive writing; however, it is not really descriptive because it provides the information dealing with the natural or no-natural phenomena. This is also not matter of procedure genre because it doesn’t tell the process of a phenomenon such as how volcano occurs, how drought happens, or how the global warming takes place. It tends to describe and provide information about the cases scientifically and academically in order to improve knowledge of the reader (Pardiyono 2007 in Dirgeyasa, 2016, p. 70) In other words, report text is a type of text that presents information about something as it is which is the result of systematic observation and analysis.
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4248 Structure of Report Text
When reading a report text, you will come across a basic pattern that is common to all report texts.In general, the type of report text has several parts, namely : the title, general statement, and description (Dirgeyasa 2016, 71).
1. Title: Report text generally have concise titles without connotative meaning. The title is usually the object to be discussed. The title used is very concise but can represent the entire content, intent, or purpose of writing the text.
2. General Statement : A report text begins with a general statement which is an introduction to the object to be written.
3. Description: This description stage can be in the form of a single paragraph or a series of paragraphs about the object of discussion. However, in many report texts, we will find that supporting information is presented in a short and simple manner by only including the main idea or action without including explanations
Definition of Report Text
Report text has a distinctive linguistic feature. The linguistic features in the report text can help you recognize or identify the type of report text quickly and distinguish report text from other text genres. According to Gerot & Wignell (1994, p. 196), the lexicogrammatical features of report text are:
1. Focus on Generic Participant : The report text uses generic participant and does not include special participant that do not represent the type in general.
2. Using Relating Verbs: Relating verbs are words like am, is, are, seem, appear and others. In report text, relating verbs are used to describe the general characteristics of an object.
3. Using Simple Present: The tenses used in the report text are simple present, except for objects or living things that are already extinct.
4. Not Using Adverbs of Time Sequence: The report text does not use adverbs that explain the time sequence or temporal sequence, such as: first, second, third.
Difficulties in Writing
In this study, the researcher focused on the challenge that students confront while writing, particularly when creating report text. Writing is seen to be difficult by the majority of students. Because there are several crucial components in writing, such as vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Because they don't grasp the report material, students are having difficulty learning English. However, this sort of Report Text does not receive a significant amount of explanation in the form of teaching materials and from the lecturer's explanation. Students must make an attempt to solve and comprehend the lesson of the report text.
The problem that occurs in writing is a problem posed by students. Some students are still not thorough in writing, and also don’t understand how to find ideas and develop ideas. The types of problems in writing are grammar problems, sentences structural problems, word choice problems and cognitive problems. Grammar problems, mechanical problems, sentences structure problems and problems of diction problems are linguistic problems that hamper students’ effective in writing English. This mean that the expert in the opinion that the problem that occurs to students in writing is the ineffectiveness of students in writing apply grammar, structure and other writing rules. Gumus in Sari N (2021, p. 19) mentioned that there are some problems that students face when they write and it can cause diffulties in writing. It’s a pre-writing difficulties like the selection for topic of writing: the organizational difficulties and vocabulary difficulties, technical difficulties such as grammar, punctuation and spelling grammar. But in this research, researcher analyzed the difficulties in diction and punction that will be explain below :
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4249 Diction
Diction refers to a person's choice of words to communicate a concept or start a thing, as well as issues regarding language style and expression. Diction encompasses expressions, language styles, and expressions in addition to expressing which words are utilized to represent concepts. As a result, it can be stated that diction is the appropriate use of words to convey a concept when other factors such as expressions, language styles, and expressions are present, allowing for the delivery of ideas as expected.
Punctuations
Punctuation marks the structure and order of written text, as well as intonation and pauses to be recognized when reading aloud. A period or an exclamation mark can be used.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research design for this study was descriptive qualitative research. According to Bogdan & Taylor (1992, p. 21), qualitative research is a research procedure that is able to produce descriptive data in the form of speech, writing, and behavior from the people being observed. The subject of the study was the students at the 3rd semester majoring English Education in Nommensen HKBP University Medan, but here the researcher only examined 15 students consisting of groups A and B. The researcher used purposive sampling in determining the sample. The data obtained from students’ writing to know the difficulties that faced by students when writing report text, observation to see the implementation of students in writing report using their own abilities and interviews to find out the factors that cause students faced the difficulties. After collecing the data,the writer analyzed the data. According to Miles, M B. & Huberman (1984, p. 23) there are three main components of analyzing data, they are: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing/verification.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Report Text
The results of the difficulties experienced by students analyzed from the test can be seen in the table as follows:
Table 4. 4 The Data of Students’ Difficulties in Writing Report N
o
Students Initial
GSr LF
Dc Pc T G
St D FGP URV USP NUATS
1. EDYS √ √ √
2. YCM √ √ √
3. ASM √ √ √
4. PAS √ √
5. AS √ √ √ √
6. RLS √ √ √ √ √
7. ISM √ √ √
8. CJADS √ √
9. ASA √ √ √
10. FS √ √
11. WMLS √
12. JP √ √
13. SUMS √ √
14. ML √ √
15. AFP √
Nb :
GSr : Generic Structre T : Title
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4250 Gst : General Statement
LF : Lexicogrammatical Features FGP : Focus on Generic Participant URV : Using Relating Verb
USP : Using Simple Present NUATS: Not Using Adverbs of Time Sequence
Dc : Diction Pc : Punctuation
According to the table above, the 3rd semester faced some difficulties when writing report text. Based on generic structure, there are 5 students that have difficulty when writing the title who wrote a title that did not represent the object that explained in the text, 1 student who did not write general statement well because she wrote her activies with her dog and did not give general statemen about dog and there are 3 students faced difficulties in writing description where they wrote interrogative sentences and wrote their expressions in description. Then, based on significant lexicogrammatical features, there are some students that have difficulties, such as : there is 1 student that did not focus on generic participant that still using “my dog” in her writing, and there are 10 students that did not using simple present properly. Besides that, 10 students who still not able to choose the right diction and 8 students did not pay attention in using punctuation especially periods and commas when writing report text.
The Factors that Cause Students’ Difficulties
The researcher had done the interview with the students, the result can be seen below:
Table 1. The Factors that Cause Students’ Difficulties
No Initial Question Answer Analysis of the Cause 1. EDYS
Why do you have
difficulty in writing title?
I really don’t like writing, so I didn’t pay any attention to the text
She doesn’t know the generic structure
2. YCM
Why do you have
difficulty in using simple present?
I feel right with the present tense that I made. But in fact, there are still something wrong
She is unable to use the simple present
3. AS
Why are you having difficulty in writing description?
Because it contains general information about dogs
She has minimal knowledge about the object
4. RLS
Do you know how to differientiate descriptive text and report text?
I don’t know how to distinguish
descriptive text and report text because both are the same as describing things.
She doesn’t know how to distinguish between descriptive and report text
5. ISM
What
difficulties do you face when writing report text?
It’s hard for me to write description, I know very little information about dog, it made me write my text briefly according to my
She has minimal knowledge about the object
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4251 knowledge
6. ASA
Why do you have
difficulty in title?
I don’t know that the title in report text is the object that explained
She doesn’t know the generic structure
7. FS
What your difficulties in writing report text?
It’s difficult to explain factual information about the dog because I have minimal knowledge about it.
She has minimal knowledge about the object
8. ML
Why did you have
difficulties in using simple present?
I forget that the report text uses present tense
She is unable to use the simple present
According to the table above, most of them said that they have difficulties in writing report text because it has to contain general information about the object that would write in the text and they know very little, it made them must read another sources for the information. So, some of them decided to write report text briefly according to their knowledge using diction they understand.
DISCUSSION
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Report Text
After analyzing the data, the researcher found some difficulties made by students 3rd semester in majoring in English Education in HKBP Nommensen University Medan in writing report text, they have some difficulties in generic structure. Some of them are still not able to choose a title and did not write general statement and description well. Then, some of them are also having a difficulties based on lexicogrammatical features. Besides that, they have difficulties in diction where they have to choose the right words in the text and they still have difficulties in using punctuation, especially periods and commas.
The Factors that Cause Students’ Difficulties
To know the factors that cause students’ difficulties in writing report text at the 3rd semester majoring English Education in HKBP Nommensen University Medan, the researcher had done the interview with them. Based on their statements, the
researcher conclude some factors, namely:
1. They don’t know how to distinguish between descriptive and report text 2. They have minimal knowledge about the object to be explained in report text.
3. The students still don’t understand about the generic structure and lexicogrammatical features of the report text.
4. They are still unable using simple present tense well.
The Solutions of the Research
The lecturers should explain more about generic structure and lexicogrammatical features of report text, also explain the difference between report text and descriptive text.
The students should read more to get factual information about the object that explained in report text and paying attention to their study of English in order to improve their mastery tense, especially simple present tense.
The Significance of the Research
This thesis contributes to the lecturer in solving the difficulties of the 3rd semester students in writing, especially in writing report text.
Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai 4252 CONCLUSION
After collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher found the conclusions, they are : 1. When the students write report text, they have some difficulties in generic structure.
Some of them are still not able to choose a title and didn’t write general statement and description well. Then, some of them are also having difficulties based on lexicogrammatical features, such as : one student who did not use generic participant and most of them could not write the sentences by using simple present grammatically.
Besides that, they have difficulties in diction where they have to choose the right words in the text. Last, they still have difficulties in using punctuation especially periods and commas.
2. Based on students’ interview, the factors that made students still have difficulty in writing report text is they have lack of understanding about the general information of the object and they don’t know how to distinguish descriptive text and report text. The students also still don’t understand the generic structure and lexicogrammatical features of the report text.
SUGGESTIONS
Taken from the fact of the students’ condition about mastering report text, the lecturers should explain more clearly about generic structure and lexicogrammatical features of report text, also explain about the difference between report text and descriptive text.
Besides that, the students should increase their ability in mastering English, especially report text and read more information about things around us to get more factual information in writing report text to improve knowledge of the readers. The students are suggested to pay more attention to their study of English in order to improve their mastery of tense, especially simple present tense.
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